Iraqi refugee men’s experiences of psychotherapy: clinical implications and the proposal of a pluralistic model

The psychotherapy experiences of a sample of Iraqi refugee men, in later stages of exile, were explored with the aim of shedding some light on how this client group can experience therapy. Ten adult male Iraqi refugees – who had lived in Sweden for at least five years and had been psychotherapy clients at some point during that time – were recruited for this study. Using individual semi-structured interviews (in Arabic), three main areas were explored with each participant: (1) reasons for seeking psychotherapy; (2) perceptions of the psychotherapy professional; and (3) experiences of the psychotherapy process and outcome. The interviews were then translated into English, transcribed, and then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Most participants/clients described exile-related stressors as their main reason for seeking psychotherapy, but some described distress due to a combination of pre-migration trauma and post-migration stress. They also found some aspects of therapy to be positive (mainly verbalising ones thoughts and feelings, and feeling less marginalised) and some negative (mainly experiencing racist or culturally insensitive treatment by therapists, and experiencing a lack of competence and transparency in therapists). The findings were explored in terms of clinical implications and a pluralistic model was proposed to address the identified needs.     

A Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO): A Study Among Roman Catholic Priests

The internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of the 9-item Short Index of Mystical Orientation (SIMO) are established in relation with the parent 21-item Mystical Orientation Scale (MOS) among a sample of 1,468 Roman Catholic priests.     

Clinical and demographic features of the online counselling client population

The purpose of this research was to determine the demographics and characteristics of clients seeking online counselling over an eight‐month period of clinical online practice. Two hundred and seventeen clients seeking Internet counselling completed a Counselling Application and a Life History Questionnaire. The characteristics of the relatively new client population include the following categories: gender, age groups, martial status, education, primary reason for seeking online therapy, secondary issues, frequency of email exchanges, and online vs. face‐to‐face counselling preferences. Implications for online counselling practice are discussed.     

Moral development, executive functioning, peak experiences and brain patterns in professional and amateur classical musicians: interpreted in light of a Unified Theory of Performance

This study compared professional and amateur classical musicians matched for age, gender, and education on reaction times during the Stroop color-word test, brainwaves during an auditory ERP task and during paired reaction-time tasks, responses on the Gibbs Sociomoral Reflection questionnaire, and self-reported frequencies of peak experiences. Professional musicians were characterized by: (1) lower color-word interference effects (Stroop task), (2) faster categorization of rare expected stimuli (P3b), and a trend for faster processing of rare unexpected stimuli (P3a), (3) higher scores on the Sociomoral Reflection questionnaire, and (4) more frequent peak experiences during rest, tasks, and sleep. Both groups had high values on the Brain Integration Scale. These findings are interpreted in light of a Unified Theory of Performance, which posits that effectiveness in any area is influenced by one’s level of mind-brain development—emotional, cognitive, moral, ego and cortical development—with higher mind-brain development supporting greater effectiveness in any domain.     

创业警觉性、既有知识、创业经历对大学生创业机会识别的影响

采用“新手—创业经验丰富者” 对比范式,分别以114名在校无创业经历大学生和94名创业大学生作为被试,通过不同被试对自编复杂机会情景的反应搜集其对机会识别的表现,同时探讨了大学生创业警觉性、既有知识对创业机会识别的影响。结果表明：两类大学生创业警觉性、既有知识差异显著,创业大学生明显好于一般大学生。两类大学生在创业警觉性的三个维度以及既有知识的两个维度上均存在显著性差异,创业大学生均显著优于于一般大学生。创业大学生既有知识对机会识别具有显著影响;一般大学生创业警觉性对机会识别具有显著影响。此外,大学生既有知识可能通过警觉性影响机会识别。     

Culture-sensitive functional analytic psychotherapy

Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) is defined as behavior-analytically conceptualized talk therapy. In contrast to the technique-oriented educational format of cognitive behavior therapy and the use of structural mediational models, FAP depends on the functional analysis of the moment-to-moment stream of interactions between client and therapist. This distinctive feature makes FAP particularly sensitive to the challenges posed by cultural differences between client and therapist. Core elements of FAP philosophy are invoked to argue that this vulnerability paradoxically implies an increased ability to capture and use relevant issues in the therapy process with culturally different clients. This argument focuses FAP's preference for concrete behavior over theoretical modeling, its emphasis on functional principles rather than topographically defined techniques, and its inclusion of the therapist's behavior in the assessment of clients' clinically relevant behavior. Suggestions are given concerning how academic and practical training and personal experience may be used to foster sound multicultural practice.     

Designing Urban Experiences. The Case of Zuidas,Amsterdam

Zuidas is a new city centre, which is emerging in the outskirts of Amsterdam. The ambitious project of developing a new international city centre has been carefully planned as the Netherlands has a strong and meticulous tradition for urban planning. The planning has however not only encompassed traditional urban planning aspects such as infrastructure, environmental factors and aesthetics, but has also dealt with the design of urban experiences. Through an introduction of the framework of the structure of experiences, this article examines how urban experiences can be understood and analysed, and deals with how urban experiences can be designed through careful consideration of how experiences are constituted. Taking the psychological structure of experiences into account when designing urbanity is not only interesting, but also highly relevant as Zuidas is competing with other international venues such as La Défense, the Docklands and Potsdamer Platz.     

Learning from experience: Examining the impact of client work upon two trainee therapists

This qualitative research study, focusing on the learning and change of two trainee therapists over a nine‐month period, was conducted by the trainees themselves. In collecting and analysing their data, the researchers made use of the heuristic methodology, to which some of the principles of the co‐operative inquiry methodology were added. The findings shed light on some of the ways in which trainee counsellors and psychotherapists might learn through their work with clients, the forms and contexts in which this learning may arise, and how the learning might affect the trainees. The findings additionally highlight some of the possible benefits of engaging in research for trainee counsellors and psychotherapists, in terms of their roles as practitioners. These include positive changes in the ways in which they work with clients, and changes in the ways they think about their practice.     

The client as expert: Researching hindering experiences in counselling

This paper identifies the importance of valuing clients’ experiences when seeking to understand hindering experiences in counselling. Since the research literature reports that client perceptions of counselling are better predictors of outcome than counsellor ratings, client viewpoints are critical to furthering understanding of hindering experiences. Clients are generally reluctant to share negative experiences and a discussion regarding the difficulty in soliciting these experiences is presented. Examples of the process of conducting a client-oriented investigation into hindering experiences convey some of these difficulties. Several implications for counselling practice are addressed: (1) the need for counsellors to notice and repair hindering experiences, (2) the value of attending to the quality of the relationship, (3) the need for counsellors to cultivate flexibility and responsiveness, and (4) the use of methods to encourage clients to share their unspoken experiences.     

The gendered nature of career related learning experiences: A social cognitive career theory perspective

The learning experiences questionnaire (LEQ; Schaub & Tokar, 2005) was used to examine learning experiences as they relate to SCCT (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) across the Holland (1997) RIASEC typology. In particular, differences in men’s and women’s career related learning experiences were examined. A sample of 319 undergraduates at a public Midwestern university completed an online survey. Gender differences were observed in reported levels of some learning experiences; similar to prior findings for self-efficacy and interests, women reported more learning experiences in the Social domain, and men reported more experiences in the Realistic and Investigative domains. Results also supported that more reported learning experiences in a given domain relate to higher self-efficacy and outcome expectations in that domain.